Machine for feeding nails.



E. A. TRIPP.

v MACHINE FOR FEEDING NAILS.

APPLICATION FILED rmmo, 1910.

' Patented Ma r.23,1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

E. A. TRIPP.

MACHINE FOB. FEEDING NAILS.

APPLICATION FILED 1 113.10, 1910.

1,132,638, Patented Mar. 23, 1915.

2 SHBETSSHEET 2.

THE NORRIS PETERS 60.. PHOTO-LITHQ, WASHINGTON, D. c.

To all whom it may concern:

pnrr srrns ELIPHALET A. TRIPP, OF BEVERLY, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, OF PATEL-SON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

MACHINE FOR FEEDING NAILS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 23,1915.

Application filed. February 1c, 1910. Serial No. 543.128.

Be it known that I, ELIPHALET A. TRIPP, a citizen of the United States, residing at Beverly, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Machines for Feeding Nails, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to machines for feeding nails.

The machine herein set forth is adapted for use with the heel nailing machine illustrated and described in United States Letters Patent No. 1,081,917, granted December 16, 1913. It will be understood, however, that machines embodying the present invention could be used in connection with nailing machines other than that disclosed in said patent.

The machine shown is constructed for feeding headed nails as distinguished from nails which are headless. As will be ap parent from the following description, however, some of the features of the inventlon may be embodied advantageously in a machine for feeding headless nails.

The invention consists in the combinations of parts and features of construction hereinafter described and referred to in the appended claims. v In the drawin s which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention,Figure 1 is a view in perspective, with certain parts in section, of the machine; Fig. 2 1s a view from the rear in Fig. 1 showing the actuating mechanism for the rotary hopper and other parts hereinafter described; Fig. 3 is a view in perspective of a nail separator hereinafter referred to; Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the separator of Fig. 3 and a portion of the raceway with which said separator is combined; Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4 showing the separator in a different position; Fig. 6 is a view in vertical section of the lower end of a raceway and the nail tube leading therefrom; Fig. 7 is a view in perspective of a portion of the nail transferrer hereinafter described.

Referring to the drawings and more particularly .to Fig. '1, the reference numeral 1 indicates a casting suitably supported upon the frame of that machine with which the nail feeding machine is combined. The cast-' ing 1 is provided upon its upper side with an inclined table in which is formed a series of racewavs 4, six raceways being shown in the present machine. Each raceway 4 is formed of two parallel plates vertically arranged in the casting and spaced apart to receive nails suspended by their. heads between them.

The raceway plates are separate from the mounted a rotary hopper 6'provided with vanes 8 upon its inner periphery forming nail pockets. The hopper 6 is secured to a shaft 7 mounted for rotary movement in the casting 1 and rotated mechanism herein-' In its rotary movement after described. the vanes 8 deposit nails upon the upper surface of the raceways, some of which enter the raceways and are suspended therein by their heads. The hopper 6 is preferably removably secured upon the shaft 7 by means of a removable clampingwheel 9 threaded on the rear of the shaft 7. I

In order to insure that the nails willbe properly positioned in the'raceways there is provided a nail controller for each raceway which is constructed to adjust the nails in the raceway and to prevent nails which are improperly arranged from proceeding along the raceway. To this end a cross piece 10 is secured to the casting 1, said cross piece having series of depending lugs 12 in which is journaled a shaft 14. Upon the shaft 14 is secured a series of controlling wheels 16 arranged above and closely adjacent to the respective raceways. Each wheel 16 isproment of the nails. In case a nail lies transversely across the raceway it is moved up the raceway by the teeth 18, and drops from the raceway back into the hopper. Such nails as are properly suspended in the raceway pass down the raceway through the grooves in the teeth 18. If nails in the raceway are too close together with their heads overlapping the teeth 18 shift them rearwardly.

At a point short of the lower end of each raceway there is mounted in the casting 1 a rotary nail separator disk 20. Each separator 20 is received in a circular recess in the casting 1 and provided with a depending central stud 22 received in a socket in said casting. An eccentrically arranged pin 24: extends upwardly from each separator. Each nail separating disk 20 is provided with a peripheral groove 26 which, as will appear from Fig. 3, is inclined relatively to the axis of the disk. The relation of a nail separating disk to its raceway is illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 from which it will be apparent that by an oscillation of the disk between the limits shown in these two figures the lowermost nail above the separator will be separated from the rest of nails in the raceway, moved along the raceway under the influence of the separator and finally allowed to escape from the separator and proceed along the raceway. The nail separating disks 20 are arranged in a plane parallel with the upper faces of the raceway. The inclination of the groove 26 is provided on account of the fact that the lowermost nail above a separator is suspended in a substantially vertical position. The inclination of the groove 26 is such that in the nail receiving position of the separator as shown in Fig. 4 said groove is substantially vertical.

At the lower end of each raceway is provided an upwardly flaring nail receiving conduit 28 from which lead nail tubes 30. Each raceway is provided at its lower end with a transverse pin 32 arranged below the upper face of the raceway for the purpose of tilting the nail as it passes from the lower end of the raceway so that it will enter the nail tube 30 head first, as illustrated in Fig. 6.

The nail controllers 16 and the nail separators .20 are both actuated from the shaft 7 of the rotary hopper 6. To this end the shaft 7 prpjects forwardly beyond its bearing in the casting 1 and has mounted thereon a spiral gear 34: meshing with a similar gear 36 upon the shaft 1 1 of the nail controllers. The nail separators are interconnected by a connecting rod 38 having formed therein suitably spaced bores receiving the pins 2a of the nail controllers. A vertical lever 40 is pivotally supported intermediate its ends upona pin 12 inserted in the casting 1. The lever 40 is provided at its lower end with a 26 will be given one oscillation.

longitudinal way for a slide block n having an outwardly extending pin entering a bore in the connecting rod 38. The upper end of the lever 40 is provided with a similar longitudinal way for receiving a slide block 46 in which is formed a bore to receive a pin it eccentrically located in the forward end of the shaft 7. It will be seen that in a single revolution of the shaft 7 the nail separators The nail controllers 16 will also be rotated an amount dependent upon the relative sizes of the gears 3-1 and 36.

For the purpose of securing access to the hopper and that portion of the raceways lying within the hopper, the front side of the hopper is provided with a door 50 hinged to lugs 52 projecting upwardly from the cross piece 10.

The nail tubes 30 lead to a nail foot from which the nails are taken to the nail block of the nailing machine by a swinging nail transferrer 56. The nail transferrer is secured to the lower end of a shaft 53 journaled in a vertical bearing in the casting 1. A spring 60 is arranged about the shaft 58, one end being secured to a cOllar 62 rigid with said shaft and the other end being secured to a stationary bushing 64 in which the shaft 58 is journaled. The spring 66 maintains the nail transferrer normally in position below the nail foot 5 and returns it to that position automatically after nails have been discharged from the transferrer to the nail block of the nailing machine.

The nail transferrer is provided with nail passages for the reception of the nails from the foot and has on its lower face beneatl said passages a retaining plate 66 having perforations normally maintained out of line with the passages of the transferrer by a spring 68 cotiperating with a stop 70 limiting movement of the retaining plate under the action of the spring. The retaining plate 66 is automatically moved to bring its apertures in alinem'ent with the nail passages of the transferrer by engagement of a screw 72 upon said retaining plate with a part of the nailing machine proper.

In the machine shown, the rotary shaft 7 of the hopper 6 is actuated from the fly wheel 74: of the nailing machine. To this end there is provided a rotary shaft 76 having a disk 78 constructed for frictional engagement with the side of the fly wheel 74-. This shaft is journaled at its lower end in a yoke 77, the lower forked end of which straddles the bearing for the shaft of the fly wheel 7 l. The yoke 77 is held yieldingly toward the fly wheel by a spring 79 and the disk 7 8 is thus pressed into yielding engage ment with the side of the fly wheel. A manually operated cam 81 is indicated in Fig. 2 for the purpose of moving the friction wheel 78 out of contact with the fly wheel 74 and thus discontinuing the rotation of the shaft 76. The shaft 76 is provided at its upper end with a worm 80 formed to engage a worm gear 82 secured to the rear face of the hopper 6. The shaft 76 is in continual rotation and is brought intermittently into operative relation to the gear 82. To this end said shaft 76 is journaled in a movable sleeve 84, said sleeve being pivotally secured by a removable pin 86 to a horizontally movable supporting member 88. The supportlng member 88 is held normally in the position shown in Fig. 2 by a spring 90 and said supporting member 88 is provided with a pin 92 arranged to be engaged by a latch 94 for holding said supporting member in that position in which the worm 80 is in engagement with the gear 82. The hopper 6 is provided with a cam 96 formed to engage the latch 9i and disengage it from the pin 90.

It will be seen that the mechanism described for actuating the hopper 6 insures a single rotation of said hopper whenever the rotary shaft 76 is brought into operative relation to the gear 82. For the purpose of intermittently securing this relation between the shafts 76 and 7 the nail transferring shaft 58 carries at its upper end a lever 98 having adjustably mounted therein a set screw 100 arranged to engage a lateral eX- tension 102 upon the sleeve 84. It will be seen that with this arrangement whenever the nail transferrer is brought into delivering relation to the nail block of the nailing machine the shaft 76 will be moved to bring the worm on its upper end into mesh with the gear 82 on the shaft 7 of the rotary hopper, and will be held in that position by the latch 94L The shaft 7 is thereupon given a single rotation at the end of which the latch 94 will be moved to allow the shaft 7 6 to be moved out of operative relation to the shaft 7. Nails may be supplied to the hopper through the opening closed by the door 50. The hopper is emptied of nails by removing it from its supporting shaft. This may be done by removing the pin 86 and swinging the shaft 76 away from the hopper, removing the clamping wheel 9 and thereafter removing the hopper longitudinally from the shaft 7.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a machine of the class described, a nail separator comprising a disk having in its periphery a groove both walls of which are inclined relatively to the axis of the disk.

2. In a machine of the class described, a nail separator comprising a disk having in its periphery a groove inclined relatively to the axis of the disk, the disk being provided with a dependingcentral stud about which the disk is movable circularly, and anup 3. In a machine of the class described, the

combination with a plurality of raceways formed to suspendnails by their heads, of a rotary hopper for supplying nails to said raceways, means for automatically rotating said hopper and means for discontinuing the movement of the hopper at the end of a single rotation.

1. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a plurality of raceways formed to suspend nails by their heads, of a movable nail separator adjacent the lower end of each raceway, a rotary hopper for supplying nails to the raceways, means connecting the hopper and separators whereby they move in unison, means for automatically rotating the hopper, and means for discontinuing the movement .of the hopper at the end of a single rotation. 1

5. In a machine of the class described, a

raceway formed to support a series of nails,

a hopper for supplying nails to said raceway, means for imparting a rotary movement to said hopper, an oscillatory separator in said raceway, and means directly connecting said hopper and said separator whereby rotary movement of the hopper is translated into oscillatory movement of the separator.

6. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a plurality of parallel raceways formed to suspend nails by their heads, of a rotary shaft arranged in parallel relation to the planes of the raceways, a

hopper secured to said shaft and arranged to deliver nails to the raceways in its rotation, a rotary shaft arranged above the race ways and extending transversely thereof and provided with a series of nail controllers, means for transmitting movement from the first named shaft to the second shaft, a plurality of oscillatory nail separators arranged adjac nt to the loa ends of the raceways, a reciprocatory rod connecting said nail separators for operating them in unison, and means for imparting to said rod a reciprocatory movement from said first named shaft.

7. In a machine of the class described, the combination of a nail raceway, a separator located to receive a nail from said raceway, nail driving means, a nail transferrer movable from a position to receive nails from said separator to a position to deliver said nails to said nail driving means, and means for starting the operation of said separator when said transferrer is moved to nail delivering position.

8. In a machine of the class described, a raceway comprising parallel rails for con- Lg usages veying nails, one of said rails having an name to this specification in the presence of opening, and a nail separator comprising a two subscrlbing wltnesses.

disk located with its periphery entering the ELIPHALET A TRIPP opening in said rail and having in its periphery a groove inclined relatively to its Witnesses: axis. HERBERT W. KENWAY,

In testimony whereof I have signed my JAMES RILEY HODDER.

Copies of thispatent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. C." 

